Posts Tagged ‘Vatican’

(JNi.media) The exhibition “A blessing to one another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People,” which opened on Tuesday in the Vatican (Charlemagne Wing, through September 17), has had its original run in several US state capitals, where it attracted more than a million visitors.

Funded by various universities and private individuals and organizations who support interfaith dialogue, the exhibition, presented as a gift to John Paul II for his 85th birthday, was inaugurated at the Xavier University of Cincinnati, Ohio, in May 2005, one month after the Pope’s death.

“A blessing to one another” describes the Pope’s efforts to improve relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people.

The chief rabbi of Rome Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni told CNS: “Seeing in St. Peter’s Square the banner announcing the exhibit with an image of a pope — that’s normal — but a pope shaking hands with a rabbi? That’s not normal. It’s a sign of how times have changed.”

The banner shows the late John Paul II and the late Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff greeting each other in 1986 at Rome’s main synagogue. John Paul II was the first pope in modern history to enter a synagogue.

The exhibition is divided into four sections and consists of photographs, videos, recordings and other interactive sources.

The first section illustrates Karol Wojtyla’s early years in his birthplace Wadowice, what would become a lifelong friendship with the young Jew Jerzy Kluger, and the relations between Catholics and Jews in Poland during the decade 1920 to 1930.

The second section is dedicated to the Pope’s university years in Krakow, and his work not far from his friends in the Ghetto who knew the horrors of the Shoah.

The third describes his priestly and episcopal life, Vatican Council II and the change of direction it represented in relations between Jews and Christians, and the close link between the cardinal archbishop of Krakow and the Jewish community in his archdiocese.

The final section considers the figure of Wojtyla as Pope, his visit to the Synagogue of Rome, and his trip to Israel in the year 2000 when he left a prayer in the Western Wall asking for divine forgiveness for the treatment that Jews had received in the past and reaffirming the Church’s commitment to a path of fraternal continuity with the People of the Covenant.

Visitors to “A blessing to one another” are invited to write a prayer to be placed in a reproduction of the Wall. They will be gathered and deposited in the Western Wall without being read.

It’s the first time the Pope used the phrase “State of Palestine” in an official document, proving once and for all that the Pope is completely fallible in his official capacity.

The treaty deals with aspects of life and activities of the Catholic Church in “Palestine.” It also recognizes PA control over eastern Jerusalem. (Huh?)

The PA’s signing an international treaty is a breach of the Oslo accords, which shows how much you can rely on any treaty the PA signs.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed its regret at the Vatican’s decision.

Under Palestinian Authority rule, the number of Christians in PA controlled areas has dropped to less than 2% of the population. In Bethlehem, the number of Christians has dropped to below 20%, where once they made up 80% of the city.

Pope Francis told Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas that he can be “an angel of peace,” (“lei possa essere un angelo della pace”) during the public meeting with the PLO leader in the Vatican.

They also held a 20 minute private meeting afterwards.

The Pope has also decided to officially recognize the state of “Palestine”.

Francis apparently wouldn’t recognize the Angel of Death if it stared him in the face.

Note: Both AP and AFP incorrectly translated the Pope’s statement in their reports, as definitively calling Abbas is an angel of peace, as opposed to the actual statement, where he said he could be one: “May the angel of peace destroy the evil spirit of war. I thought of you: may you be an angel of peace.”

The Vatican officially recognized the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday as a new Arab country. This, despite its lack of any borders, and the fact that it is, in essence, comprised of two complete entities ruled by two completely different governments.

In a new treaty finalized Wednesday but not yet signed, the Vatican welcomed the 2012 decision by the United Nations General Assembly to grant the entity non-member observer state status.

As the first legal document to be negotiated between the Palestinian Authority and the Vatican, the treaty as such constitutes an official recognition of “the state of Palestine.”

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas – who has remained in his position more than four years past the expiration of his legal term in office – is slated to meet with Pope Francis on Saturday.

Since the PA has not seen fit to meet its obligations under the internationally- recognized Oslo Accords, this treaty further exacerbates tensions over the entity’s violations of the agreement.

The PA has sought UN membership as a means of evading its responsibilities under the Accords, which include stopping terror and reaching a final status agreement with Israel through direct negotiations between the parties.

President Barack Obama has pontificated that the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) does not speak for Islam.

ISIS “speaks for no religion,” said the President, who doubles as de facto Secretary of Islamic Defense.

How does he know ISIS does not speak for Islam? He explains, “Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.”

America’s expert on religion apparently never learned about the Crusades, nor does he know that leading Christian leaders justify killing homosexuals because they are deemed a threat to Christianity.

“ISIL has no ideology of any value to human beings,” Obama continued, taking time off from his vacation at Martha’s Vineyard to explain that ISIS’s radical Islamic ideology is “bankrupt,” an implied assumption that bankrupt ideology does not speak for anyone.

Perhaps Hitler did not speak for Germans?

Responding to the ISIS’s beheading of American photojournalist James Foley, President Obama continued, “ISIL stands for the Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant while ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq & Syria. The aims and objectives of ISIS/ISIL are clear – establish an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East and eventually a global caliphate. That global caliphate includes The White House. This means purifying Islam. Those Muslims who are deemed insufficiently Muslim will be killed….

“One thing we can all agree on is that a group like ISIL has no place in the 21st century.”

What constitutes someone speaking for a religion? There are no lack of usurpers who challenge the authority of Judaism and Christianity. Each faith has many sects that are not recognized by each other, but who, except for Obama, decides what religious leader speaks for Judaism or Christianity.

The answer, outside of the Vatican and Israel where religion and state are intertwined as a matter of self-survival, lies in valid surveys.

A 9/11/13 Pew Survey revealed that a “median of 57% across the 11 Muslim publics surveyed hold an unfavorable view” of Al Qaeda. That is a polite way of saying that 43 percent of Muslim dis not state an unfavorable view of the terrorist network.

A Gallup poll in 2008 stated that 36.6 percent of the world’s approximately 1.8 Muslims partially, totally, or in some way justified the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

In numbers, that means approximately 600,000,000 Muslims are roaming the world with radical Islamic views.

Not all of them, and perhaps a small minority of them, are ISIS enthusiasts. Many more are big on Al Qaeda, Taliban, Hezbollah the Army of Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood and its offspring Hamas.

If the definition of ISIS radicalism is beheading and establishing an Islamic caliphate in the Middle East, these groups are not far apart, unless Obama preaches that their ideology is no less bankrupt than suicide bombers who blow up women and children, and Hamas executions who shoot people in the head and the back, drag their bodies in the street and cart off body parts of Israel soldiers as souvenirs or booty for ransom.

The Vatican has confirmed it has no plans to attempt a sovereignty grab at King David’s tomb, at least at this point.

In an interview posted this week on the Vatican Insider website, Jerusalem-based Bishop William Shomali confirmed that Pope Francis is going to celebrate Mass in the Cenacle – the upper room which is considered holy to Christians because they believe it is the place where Christianity’s founder, Jesus, celebrated the Last Supper.

A niche on the lower level of the same building is alleged to be the burial site of the Biblical King David, marked by a large cenotaph-sarcophagus set up by 12th century Crusaders. However, most scholars consider this attribution to be incorrect; in Kings I 2:10[13] the burial site of the ancient Biblical king is said to be “in the City of David”, identified as the eastern hill of ancient Jerusalem, rather than in what is today called Mount Tzion, the western hill of the ancient Old City of Jerusalem.

The site is one of many located in the area claimed by the Palestinian Authority for its hoped-for independent Arab state within Israel’s borders. The PA has insisted in talks that Israel hand over all of the areas of Jerusalem restored in the 1967 Six Day War — including all Jewish holy sites — so it can establish a new capital city there. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has also said repeatedly that he will never allow any Jew to set foot on “Palestinian land” once borders for a new PA state are established.

Shomali, who was born in the PA and is auxiliary-bishop of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, confirmed the Pope is expected to celebrate Mass in the room. However, he firmly denied the Holy See had any intention of attempting to take control of the site from Israel.

“There is some opposition (to celebration of Mass at the site) but it is coming mainly from ultra-Orthodox Jews who have misunderstood the event,” he told Vatican Insider. “They thought the Pope is coming to receive sovereignty over the Cenacle. This is not true! The Pope and the Vatican do not want sovereignty; they only want more use of the place in the early hours of the morning for masses and for prayer,” Shomali explained.

All of the tickets for the visit of the Pope to Bethlehem and for the Mass there are exhausted, he added, noting that 10,000 were distributed and that many asked for more. “This is different from the two previous papal masses in Bethlehem, when John Paul II and Benedict XVI came,” he said. “It means that this Pope attracts crowds.”

Israeli security is expected to be extremely tight and for the two days the Pope will be in the country, travel within Jerusalem and surrounds will be difficult.